The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus, and more particularly to an image recording apparatus wherein a film lamination can be performed on an image surface of an image recording sheet.
There has been known an image recording apparatus of the type wherein a photosensitive member and an image receiving member are used to reproduce the image of an original document. The photosensitive member has a surface coated with an immense number of photosensitive and pressure rupturable microcapsules encapsulating a chromogenic material therein. The image receiving member has a surface coated with a developer material which reacts with the chromogenic material.
In such type of the image recording apparatus, the photosensitive member is image exposed to form a latent image corresponding to an image of the original document, and is then introduced into a pressure developing unit together with the image receiving member. In the pressure developing unit, a pressure is applied to the photosensitive member and the image receiving member held in superposed relation, so that the chromogenic material released from the ruptured microcapsules reacts with the developer material and a visible image is formed on the image receiving member. The image receiving member is thereafter fed into a thermal fixing unit to thermally fix the image formed thereon.
In such an image recording apparatus, there is a problem such that the image-formed surface of the image receiving member tends to be smeared with finger prints, alcohol, water or the like. Further, after the image formation, if a number of the image receiving members are left in stacked condition, the image-formed surface of one developer sheet adheres to the reverse side of another, thereby damaging the image.